Editing Vampire: The Masquerade (section)

====Dark Thaumaturgy====
Regular Thaumaturgy is blood magic given form by experimentation and research. Dark Thaumaturgy is instead granted by demons that vampires can make pacts with in exchange for these Paths. This is a shortcut to power, one that leads to the dark side and makes one a Infernalist. As such, employing Dark Thaumaturgy is risky as just about any Kindred: in the Camarilla the Tremere have the monopoly on magic and don't like it when someone treads on their turf: to the Sabbat Infernalism is a very big no-no and the Anarchs lack the resources and knowledge for Dark Thaumaturgy. As part of the pact to obtain it, all of the Paths have a price to pay that affects either the Infernalist or limits the usefulness of the Path under certain conditions. Like its normal counterpart, Dark Thaumaturgy has a number of paths that each do something different:

*'''Fires of the Inferno''' is more or less the Lure of Flames, except the flames are a sickly green. Said green flames taint the user's aura, making them even easier to identify as an Infernalist.
*'''Path of Evil Revelations''' or by its original name, Video Nefas, lets you see the future, into the spirit world and the souls of mortals and use this knowledge to shape demons.
*'''Path of Phobos''' has to do with inflicting fear upon others in increasingly horrible ways to the point where said fear can be feasted upon as if it were Vitae. This also makes the user suffer horrific nightmares.
*'''Path of Pain''' inflicts pain, shields the user from pain and can even make a vampire's blood rip them apart from the inside. As a price the user becomes addicted to pain.
*'''Path of Pleasure''' lets you inflict great pleasure on a target, eventually rendering them stunned and even catatonic.
*'''Path of Spirit''' allows for the conjuring of demons and damaging all kinds of spirits.
*'''Path of Summoning ''' grants the ability to summon powerful demons, but this taints the area in which one is summoned.
*'''Path of the Defiler''' spreads corruption of the spirit, playing to the fears and inadequacies of people to the point where you turn someone's self-loathing into a deformity. This does make one jealous and possessive of their victims.
*'''Path of the Unspoken''' grants access to knowledge: you can learn it from books, the voices of entropy, talk to peoples' shadows and evne make someone drop from the collective consciousness at the cost of memory lapses.
*'''Taking of the Spirit''' allows for the draining of Willpower: the higher the rank the more Willpower you drain. This makes the user an arrogant magalomaniac.
*'''Tyranny of the Wyrm''' or by its original and far more badass German name, '''Die Herrschaft Des Wyrm''', is a unique Path that does not traffic with normal demons. Instead it parlays with the three-headed dragon himself. And no, this is not ''Azhi Dahaka'' that the [[Tzimisce]] seek: this is none other than the Triatic [[Wyrm]] of [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]. Created by a Hessian [[Malkavian]] cabal, it serves a power greater than even the most potent demons: the very essence of the Universe's destructive third. After the Path's creation all of its practitioners were betrayed to the Wyrm by Harold the Engraver, one of the members of the cabal, who later disappeared. His writings are remarkably well-conserved, allowing for the creation of many new Infernalists in the area. This Path allows for the manipulation of Malfean demons, letting them possess either the Infernalist's targets of the thaumaturgist themselves, granting anything from constant pain and suffering to a massive boost due to being possessed by an aspect of a Maeljin, which for those of you not vested in the ways of Werewolf is both a REALLY BAD IDEA as well as REALLY BAD FOR ANYONE FACING THE POSSESSED. The Path does have one big weakness: its instability. If the victim understands that it's being played they get a Wits + Occult roll against the Infernalist's Willpower and dots in the Path: if the victim wins the curse bounces onto the Infernalist. On top of that, a blessing from someone with True Faith immediately removes any ill effects caused by the Discipline. As for what became of Harold the Engraver? Nobody knows, but there is a powerful Malkavian (probably a Malkavian [[Baali|Apostate]]) on the [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse#Pentex: Evil Incorporated|Pentex Board of Directors]], making him a servant to the Wyrm. He happens to have the name Harold Zettler, <s>which gets a lot more ominous when you realize what the German word for engraver is...(Ja, Zettler bedeutet "Engraver" auf Englisch)</s> (Actually, Zettler seems to be an outdated term for a job performed in a weaving mill: someone who transfers threads onto another machine so they get incorporated into a larger weave. Whether this is a piece intentional or accidental irony is up for debate.)